1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to electronic mail systems and, more particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for distributing electronic mail.
2. Background of the Related Art
In today""s electronic mail (e-mail) environment many users either reply or forward the entire contents of received e-mail messages to a variety of users. The downside of distributing e-mail in such a manner is that the original sender has no control over who receives the forwarded messages. A single e-mail message that is sent to one person may be forwarded to others and then forwarded to even more people in a cascade distribution of the electronic mail. If the original sender retracts the e-mail statement and sends the retraction to the original recipient of e-mail, there is no certainty that the retraction will be passed on to all of the recipients of the original electronic mail message.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method, an article of manufacture and an apparatus for controlling cascade electronic mail distribution.
The invention provides a method, apparatus and an article of manufacture for providing cascade distribution of electronic mail comprising creating an electronic mail message having a flag to identify the electronic mail message as a cascade-type electronic mail message; and forwarding received cascade-type electronic mail message to recipients in a recipients list. The invention also creates an electronic mail message having a flag to identify the electronic mail message as a cascade forward-type electronic mail message; and automatically forwards received cascade forward-type electronic mail message to recipients in a forwarded mail log.